Remove Iraq from the Travel Ban, Iraq PM tells Trump

US President made a phone call to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi regarding their increasing strained bilateral relationship following an executive order signed by Trump last month on travel ban.

Iraqi is one of the countries whose immigrants had been blocked from entering the U.S. Both world leaders are said to be working on a common ground over the matter. This is according to an official readout of Thursday’s call from the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister, reports CNN.

The statement from Al-Abadi’s office read, “The Prime minister stressed on the importance of a review of the decision on the right of Iraqis to travel to the United States and lift Iraq from the list of countries mentioned in the executive order. In the other hands, President Trump made a stress on the importance of coordination with the aim of finding a solution to this matter as soon as possible and that he will soon direct the US State Department in this regard.

Though it was not clear whether the invitation was accepted, the information from the Prime minister’s office states that Mr. Trump once requested Al-Abadi to pay him a visit in the US.

According to the readout from the Iraqi side, the two leaders also discussed on how to strengthen the relationship that exists between Iraq and the US following the executive order.

The readout also states that Al-Abadi received a congratulatory message from President Trump on “leading the war on terror.”

In addition, it is still unclear if the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Abadi and the US president Trump had communicated prior to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimous decision on last Thursday. The decision denied the US Department of Justice’s bid for an emergency stay of a lower court’s decision which is said to have temporarily halted the executive order issued by President Trump.